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#notices my name on their blog because they could actually click at it and find out that i play choices and just like
maniculum · 5 months
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Gauging Interest in an Idea
I've noticed a couple notes on the original scorpion post along the lines of "wouldn't it be fun to engage in Bestiary Telephone and try to draw animals based on garbled descriptions?" And I was like, that wouldn't be hard to simulate, just find a friend to read you bestiary entries but not tell you what the animal is... and then I had a Thought.
I have access to an academic library and a reasonable fluency in Old and Middle English. I bet I could find a transcription of a bestiary in one of those languages, do a quick-and-dirty modern translation of each entry, and post them on here once a week with the actual names of the animals replaced by nonsense words or something.* Then people could try and draw them, with the same amount of information a medieval artist who had never seen this animal would have had access to.
*Yes, translations of bestiaries do already exist (I even have one on my shelf right now) but I don't know of any that are public domain and so I think it might be Not Cool for me to basically serialize the entire text on this blog.
I figure anyone who wants to play can post their drawings of the week's animal on their own blog using the randomly-generated nonsense-name as a tag, then at the end of the week I can round them up, link to the artists, and reveal what animal the text was actually describing. (No guarantee that the animal actually... exists, though. Lots of made-up critters found their way into these bestiaries over time.)
Before I get into finding & translating a source, though, I want to make sure there are at least a few people out there who would be interested in participating, because if nobody wants to draw stuff, then it's just a translation exercise for me, which, while fun, isn't an ideal use of my time. So:
I'm setting the poll for one week, and if there seems to be sufficient interest, I'll start getting the text together. (It'll probably take a couple weeks after that to get started, because I do have other projects and whatnot.)
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thefallennightmare · 1 year
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Moment of Weakness-one
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*credit to whoever created the gif. found on google/Pinterest *
Pairings: Mob!Bucky Barnes x reader
Warnings: language, smut, angst, fluff, affair, cheating, violence.
Summary: Reader is the assistant to New York's most feared mob boss, James Buchanan Barnes. He had the picture-perfect life: status in the mob, friends, and beautiful wife. So why can't he keep his mind and eyes off of reader?
Authors Notes: I'm not too sure how long this series will be so let's just enjoy it!
Tags(open): @splendidreads @sebsgirl71479 @mdpplgtz03 @pattiemac1 @elizacusi-blog
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The heels of my boots smacked against the hardwood floor as I hurried around the room, trying to finish my work. The setting sun had blasted its rays through the window, an indication that I had about a half hour left before the work day had ended and I was able to go home. 
Even though I would have rather stayed longer, with him. 
Part of me thought of going to ask him if he needed me to stay later tonight but that would require me going into his office and talking to him; something I had only done one or twice in the few months of me working here. 
Any time he needed something, he would either write a note and leave it on my desk or send me an email. We barely spoke to each other and if we did it was a quick good morning as he was walking in and a goodnight as I was walking out. 
He was always right behind me in the morning, both of us usually arriving at the same time but he would always stay much later in the evenings, long after I had gone home. 
Being New York’s top mob boss was a full time gig and it kept him busy. Which is why he hired me. When I first applied for the job, I thought I would be the assistant to a C.E.O or something. Needless to say, I had been shocked on my first day when I walked in and noticed who I was actually working for. 
His name was the hush gossip around town, his mob gang running the neighborhood I had lived in my whole life. It has been passed down from generation to generation. When he found out that I had lived here and remembered his grandpa running the gang before his father did, I had been hired on the spot. 
When I told the people in my life of my new job, they were worried for my safety. They reminded me that I could have gotten a job anywhere in New York, why did I agree to this one?
The pay was perfect, exactly what I needed to get by and then some, but the main reason why I accepted this job was because of him. It would have been a lie if I said I didn’t find him attractive. I had to keep reminding myself, though, that it was just a crush. Nothing more. 
Of course, I couldn’t help but worry on how I would be assisting him. But it ended up being the typical mundane tasks any assistant would have. Running errands for him, helping sort his meetings, taking some calls, deterring anyone he didn’t want to see or didn’t have a meeting away. There was only one person who was allowed to walk into his office freely. 
Her.
With a soft sigh, I packed up all of my belongings, the clock on the wall striking six in the evening, and the thought of sitting on my couch in my lazy clothes watching trashy television brought a smile to my face. 
The door behind my desk clicked open and I felt the warmth radiate from him as he walked out, a charming smile across his soft features. 
“Leaving for the night?” 
My eyes glanced at him and felt my heart begin to pound in my chest, the vibrations echoing up to my throat. 
I nodded. “Unless you need something else from me?” 
He shook his head, a smile still plastered over his face. It was almost as if he knew how much his smile made me weak in the knees. The hairs that had been slicked back when he arrived this morning were now a mess on top of his head, no doubt from him running his hand through it. With the light from the lamp on my desk, I could see the few gray hairs that peaked underneath the browns of his beard. 
He looked breathtaking. 
My eyes darted to his left arm, the black and gold vibranium catching the said before light and I had to force myself to look away, so I didn’t get caught staring. 
Except I knew I had because he hid his hand into his jacket pocket.
“No, you go home. Enjoy the rest of the night. I’ll see you in the morning.” 
“Have a good night Mr. Barnes,” I smiled with a red face at being caught. 
“I already told you, Y/N. You can call me Bucky,” he insisted. 
I smiled at my boss, James Buchanan Barnes, and while tossing my bag over my shoulder bid him a goodnight with a nod. I could feel his burning gaze on my backside as I walked away. 
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I hummed a low tune while I typed away at the computer in front of me, the list of emails waiting to be sent. Bucky had made sure that this task was my number one priority today because the monthly meeting with the other two mob gangs that ran the other neighborhood around us was coming up. He wanted to make sure that those leaders knew what was going to be discussed before they would arrive that day. 
It had been held here at Bucky’s office for the last handful of years because of his reputation and position in the mob. He was well respected among the other gangs, their own leaders looking up to him. The reason for these meetings were to discuss business, of course, but also to make sure that everyone remembered who was in charge. 
A large presence was felt behind me but I didn’t have to look to see who it was. A smile pulled at the corner of my lips but kept my attention on the email I had been typing. 
“Need something?” I asked over my shoulder. 
The blonde smirked. “I’m just wondering when you’re doing the next coffee run.” 
I spun around in my chair, eyes glancing up towards the man. His beard had been a bit fuller since I saw him last week and his long hair was slicked back, his blue eyes shining bright. 
“Last time I checked Rogers. I’m not your coffee runner,” I joked while standing to my feet and gave his chest a pat. 
The firmness of it did not go unnoticed by me. 
Steve chuckled. “It’s Buck. He’s ready for his afternoon coffee with lunch.” 
I nodded. “Is he busy or can I pop in to get his order?” 
He held up a piece of paper in his hand. “I already got it. Bucky wants me to go with you.”
“Sam usually comes with me,” I raised a brow. “
Steve shrugged with his hands in his pockets. “Figured you could use a change of company.” 
I nodded, eagerly to spend some time with him. Steve was not only one of Bucky’s bodyguards but was also his childhood best friend. The two of them grew up together and while I didn’t speak much to Bucky, Steve and I found ourselves talking almost every free chance we could. There had been a few times our conversations had taken a flirtatious route, neither of us correcting it or changing it. What started off as fun was slowly becoming serious which confused the hell out of me.
Admittedly, he was very attractive as well but there was only one man that currently kept my wandering eyes, even if that’s all that it would come too. I wouldn’t allow it to become anything else because of her. 
“Bucky does know that I don’t need someone to come with me almost every time I run errands for him, right?” I spoke. 
Steve nodded. “He does but it’s company policy.” 
I playfully scoffed. “Is that what you think of me, Steve? Company policy?” 
There was a flash of something in his eyes and his tongue quickly darted over his lips. 
“You really want to know what I think?” Steve’s voice became heavy as he took a step closer. 
I met him halfway, chin raised up to him. “Yeah, I really do.” 
We stared at each other, gazes burning, and I couldn’t ignore the way my stomach flipped when Steve’s bottom lip got stuck between his teeth and I knew he heard me suck in a breath when he began leaning closer. 
Someone clearing their throat caused me to move away from Steve and when I saw who had caught us, my heart sunk. 
Bucky stared at the two of us, lips parted in confusion. “Am I interrupting something?” 
Steve sighed while shaking his head. “Always had perfect timing, Buck.” 
A red blush of embarrassment covered my body and I kept my gaze at my feet while the two friends bickered back and forth. I waited for them to finish so I could make the afternoon coffee run, hoping that the rest of the day went by fast. 
“James, you’re not going to believe who I ran into at the shops this morning.”
My head snapped up at the petite voice, eyes watching with jealousy as the woman placed a quick kiss on Bucky’s cheek. 
“Hi, sweetheart.” Bucky mused. 
Steve nodded with a smile. “Hey Natasha.” 
The red head smiled back at Steve. “James keeping you busy?” 
“He’s actually letting me leave with Y/N to grab the lunch order,” Steve joked while looking at me. 
Natasha's gaze followed and even if her smile said one thing, the look in her eyes said something completely different: annoyance. 
“How are you, Y/N?,” she asked. 
I gave her my own fake smile. “Good.” 
It wasn’t news to anyone that Natasha wasn’t happy about Bucky hiring me, she wanting to be the only girl in the office but as Bucky told her many times, it was his choice and his alone. 
“Well, I have to fill you in on my morning,” Natasha returned her attention back to Bucky. 
My broken gaze watched as she cupped his cheek to lay a kiss upon his lips, the diamond on her left-hand glimmering in the sunlight. 
Steve noticed the way I longed to be in her position, so he gently nudged me. “Ready to go?” 
My eyes locked with Bucky’s for a second, a small glimmer mixed with the blue pool of his iris', before I had to force myself to look away once again, now staring at Steve. 
“Yep.” 
Steve wrapped an arm around my shoulder and nodded a fast goodbye to Natasha and Bucky before leading me away from them. 
With our backs to them, I hadn’t seen the look Bucky burned into Steve, who still had his arm nestled on top of my shoulder. 
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emmedoesntdomath · 10 months
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RACETRACK MOTHERFCKING HIGGINS YOU GOSH DARN HISTORY NERD
RACERACERACERACERACERACE
also, i feel so seen rn *wipes away emotional tear*
so, ed ‘racetrack’ higgins was a newsie who helped lead the 1899/1900 newsboys’ strike against william randolph hearst and joseph pulitzer with louis ballat (who was known as kid blink), dave simons (who we don’t know the newsie name of), and (reportedly, because there aren’t that many sources with him) spot conlon (and, honestly? they could have been the same kid. not likely, but possibly). he was a brooklyn newsboy (from brighton beach specifically), and was between the ages of 16-21. he spent a considerable amount of time between the two racetracks he was near (hence the nickname). he had talked about william c. whitney, who owned a private racetrack, trained horses, and spent a lot of time at sheepshead (he said he had run horses for him, but that could be false). in just about every article he was interviewed for, it was noted that he talked A LOT about the races, even when they weren’t mentioned. like, at all (I love that for him, actually). he was charismatic, bold, and a natural-born leader. unfortunately, after the strike, he essentially disappears. there were a lot of ed higgins in the new york/jersey area, and it’s hard to track an idividual person, especially after the war started.
for more historical racetrack stuff, go check out @musicalcuriosity ‘s blog, they’ve got some great stuff over there.
now, because this isn’t actually my historical area of expertise, AND because I have actual hcs, we’re going to move on to the fun stuff.
ANTONIO ‘racetrack’ higgins is a manhattan newsie. he’s the second in command to jack kelly and more or less the ambassador to brooklyn. he’s snarky, loves gambling and spot conlon, and is probably the reason adderall was invented. he’s brilliant with numbers, but couldn’t tell you how to spell algebra to save his life. he’s petty, smokes more than anyone should, and will risk life and limb for those that he loves. he doesn’t plan to make it to 25, but will lie to anyone who asks and says he wants to be doctor for kids.
he becomes a newsie at nine, right after his mom dies, and he looks (maybe) seven, so he’s immediately taken under the wing of an older newsie. he’s dragged to the races after they finish selling, and it’s like something just clicks inside of him. he notices the trends, gets good at counting the cards, finding the tells of a good bet.
when asked, he would just shrug, a jaunty grin on his face. “it’s jus’ numbers,” he would say.
he meets a young francis sullivan (newly jack kelly) and charlie (now crutchie) when he stumbles upon their hiding spot in an alley. he recognized jack, and laughed instead of cowering when he threatened to soak him. he cheerfully informs them of a better place to hide on top of the lodging house, and from then on, they’re brothers friends.
he travels to brooklyn by himself the first time on a dare from albert (who has since become his best friend), and gets caught by hotshot within thirty minutes. he gets told to never come back with a hearty punch to the ribs for good measure.
he returns the next day.
he’s not allowed coffee (per jack), because he’s apparently “too damn jittery” as it is.
he can speak a little bit of italian, and converses with itey when they’re both at the lodging house. if he’s in public, he pretends he doesn’t know any.
when finch and albert start dating, part of him is sad, no matter how happy the rest of him is. it’s not fair, and he doesn’t know why, but it feels like a door’s shutting. he laughs, and holds spot a little tighter afterwards.
skittery taught him how to throw his first real punch, and then immediately started a fight with him “to make sure he understood the lesson”.
he’s scared of loud thunderstorms.
he hates the sound of a creaky wheel on a carriage.
he doesn’t mind girls, but he would prefer short brunettes with a temper (he’s very much got a type, and he’s not ashamed of it).
he would love harry potter, but despise JKR.
he believes in god, but doesn’t go to church.
if he had a kid, he would name them either maria or sebastian, after his mother and uncle respectively.
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anticonspiracist · 2 years
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Hi,
I would come of anon, cause I like an open dialogue, but I’m kinda afraid I’m going to get harassed because of my ask… so anon it is. I’m a Larrie, have been for a while now. I came across your blog and I’m kinda interested in your reasons for not believing in Larry. I couldn’t find those easily. Do you just not see what we see in their bodylanguage, the way they were different from all the other boys? And if it is because of Louis’s denials, do you not believe in closeting in general or just not for Louis and Harry?
First of all, thank you for the questions. If anything I write here needs more clarification for you, feel free to come off anon and send me a DM.
I’ve answered all of these questions multiple times before, but since my first anti-conspiracist blog, shit-larries-say, got nuked, a lot of my answers to these questions are gone as well so I’ll answer them again without hesitation. 
I entered fandom in early April of 2016 by clicking on the Buzzfeed picspam called “There’s A Wild Conspiracy Theory That Louis Tomlinson’s Baby Is Fake.” Much of that picspam was incomprehensible to me as far as evidence goes – when I’m instructed to look at what’s circled, or to read the text added by a larrie pointing out what they believe to be an obvious tell, I’m just not seeing what they expect me to see. Initially I thought this was just because I didn’t know the “players,” but it’s been six years now and I know the actual reason: it genuinely doesn’t mean anything.
When I say that I entered fandom through reading this picspam, I’ve left out why I even clicked on the link that showed up on my Twitter timeline as a retweet from someone I met at a baseball game the previous spring. I’ve been a political junkie on and off my entire life (okay, from the time I was 6) and at around that same time it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Trump was going to win the Republican nomination for President. Only about a month later he’d be named the presumptive nominee. I’d noticed a rise in political conspiracy theories that paired with his rise in influence, and people I thought I knew from my life were posting more and more unhinged screeds on Facebook. I was alarmed and trying to figure out what the fuck was happening. When that link made it to my Twitter feed, I saw an opportunity for myself to figure it out. Something I knew already from my first forays into reading the literature was that regardless of the subject of a conspiracy theory, people who believed in them followed the same thought patterns. Lower stakes than the future of American democracy was this boyband baby situation, so it would be less infuriating to dig into and understand. And if I could understand why someone believed in this absurdity, I could formulate possible procedures for convincing them not to believe in it, and then that could be applied to other, more pressing conspiracy theories and their believers.
(Spoiler alert: I now know that while it is possible to turn a person away from their conspiratorial beliefs, it is not possible to do so on a wider scale than the individual, so basically we’re fucked there.)
Okay, so that’s my background of how I came to be here, which actually answers most of your questions neatly: I don’t believe in Larry because I don’t believe in conspiracy theories generally. There isn’t anything special about Larry that, to someone who recognizes the inherent harm in the conspiracy mindset, is any different from QAnon, or people who believe JFK wasn’t assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, or Flat Earth, or David Icke’s lizard overlords, or any of Alex Jones’s host of conspiratorial beliefs. Simply, “They” are hiding the truth because “They” don’t want us to know it, and “They” are evil for this while “we” are enlightened and on the “right” side and in time the world will know that “we” were right. And all of this relies on underlying antisemitic canards. NOT GOOD. [If you find yourself wanting to say to me, "But some conspiracy theories turn out to be true!" don't bother. I know. But I am also aware that mathematically it's nearly impossible for this one to be true.
Outside of that, I’m a high school teacher. I’ve taught ages 12-19 in my career and this coming school year will be my 10th at the HS level. Every day at work I interact with teenage boys the same age that 1D were when they were thrown together. What you see as irrefutable proof that two teenage boys are in a committed romantic and sexual relationship is what I see on a daily basis: boys being boys. In my summer life I travel overseas and teach this same age group about leadership. I have seen boys from different continents and cultures, five minutes after meeting, wear a sweatshirt together (yes, imagine how that happened) because they were both cold and only one was prepared. This means nothing about their sexualities.
Furthermore, regarding your point that Harry and Louis’s body language toward each other was different from the other boys? No, it wasn’t. It will seem that way to you because of confirmation bias – you’ll see what you want to see – and because there’s simply not as many slowed-down gifs of all the other boys interacting with each other. There isn’t as much lore about these alternate pairings packaged and passed down from “dinosaur larries” to new recruits. 
Regarding closeting, I know it exists but I also know it has not ever existed the way larries claim it does and require it to in order for your conspiracy theory to “work.” For instance, Lance Bass is brought up by larries all the time and my friend and co-host and Lance superfan @back-to-louis will always push back on it. Lance did have girlfriends in his past, whom he loved, and who did not know he was gay. His bandmates did not know he was gay. He was not required by a contract to keep his sexuality a secret. He made that choice himself due to the political and social climate of the time. Furthermore, coming out was not his choice although he outed himself. He had a very limited amount of time to take control of his story before it was out of his hands and he wanted his family to know from him and not from scurrilous gossip on the internet. 
If larries want to point to Lance Bass as an example that proves their conspiracy theory, they also have to ask themselves why they continue to engage in this kind of gossip which would wrench Harry and Louis’s control of their own narratives from their hands. If the larrie conspiracy theory were reality, larries are not the good guys. Look up Ian Thorpe and his contentious relationship with the Australian press regarding his sexuality. Did he previously deny being gay before eventually coming out? Certainly. He came out when he was ready. The only thing you can do, as a fan of Louis and/or Harry, is to respect what they’ve said regarding their sexuality, until and unless they tell you something else. Louis has said he’s straight. He hasn’t ever contradicted that. A good fan and person accepts that as his truth. Harry has been intentionally non-committal about his own sexuality while maintaining romantic relationships with women. Proceeding to label him with one or another is disrespectful. Until and unless he says something else, it’s your responsibility not only as a fan but as a good person to respect what he’s said. Will Harry ever see your blog? No. But there are plenty of queer people reading it, I’m sure, and when a queer person reads a larrie’s blog what they see is that their own words are to be ignored. It’s awful.
Judy Garland wasn’t paid to beard, neither were the women who loved Elton John and Freddie Mercury. There were no contracts involved. These were true love stories, or a friend doing a favor for a friend. THAT is what “bearding” is, not this convoluted contractual process that larries believe it is. And here’s another bone to pick: If the larrie belief of beard contracts were true, why the hell aren’t Harry or Louis EVER blamed for this harmful practice? Why is it only, in effect, their employee who gets the brunt of the internet hate from largely other women? How could you believe in this practice and just excuse Harry and Louis? Don’t you see that they’d be perpetuating a harmful practice? I can hear the defense now – “Oh, but it’s not their choice! They have to do this!” Well, bullshit. They are white millionaires with complete control over their lives. They hire their managers. No one is forcing them to sign contracts they don’t want to sign.
To sum up: I don’t believe in Larry because it is a conspiracy theory (this is not a pejorative use: it definitively checks all the boxes of a conspiracy theory) and I do not engage in conspiracism for multiple reasons, chief among them being that all conspiracy theories which rely on a shadowy sinister force hiding the “truth” are inherently antisemitic. I don’t fuck with that. Larrie belief isn’t a fandom, it’s conspiracism. Conspiracism is harmful to the fabric of our human society, the proof of which is out there for your perusal and embodied in the Trump Administration and also COVID denial at large. All conspiracy theorists rely on the same flawed thought processes, and so claiming that larry is just about “two boys in love” and therefore harmless is bullshit.
Again, feel free to DM me if you have any further questions.
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moonshinemagpie · 1 year
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I Blazed So That You Don't Have To (Unless You Wanna)
After I made an ask tag game with writing questions, I decided on a whim to blaze it. Then I decided to cancel, but tumblr said I'd have to request a refund from the google play store, which sounded annoying, so I let it blaze.
I couldn't find much from users about the blaze experience so I figured I'd write about it here for the curious.
First: I paid for 2,500 impressions, but the post actually runs for 24 hours or until 2,500 impressions are hit, whichever is longer. That's a nice deal imo; mine received over 4,000 impressions.
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But second: Presumably because Tumblr is not an evil capitalist surveillance state megacooperation like Facebook/Meta, you can't select your audience by anything other than country. I would have obviously preferred for my post to only be shown to people who are interested in writing, but I figured enough of Tumblr probably writes that it wouldn't be too off-topic for most people.
That being said, if you actually want to advertise something like a book or other project, I can't imagine blaze getting you many customers.
Also, your post will go into a queue to be reviewed by human moderators, which means you can't choose a specific time for your post to blaze. It'll be up within a day of you clicking the blaze button, so plan accordingly if you think that matters.
My post was broad and interactive, so I feel like it didn't piss too many people off, and a lot of people reblogged it to join the ask game. However, 2 people did reply with nasty messages (one had a profile that said "kill kill kill, I hate sluts," and one stated that they hate Catholics in their bio, so that's fun and neat). 
I think if you try to sell something or advertise your niche fanfic, etc, you can expect more than 2 trolls. Turn off anon ask before you blaze a post. 
For me personally, I liked reading people's responses to the writing ask game, but only 2 people thought to actually ask me the questions I'd written (shout out to those two homies). I also got no increased engagement with any of my regular posts.
People will not notice your account exists just because you blaze one of your posts.
I found a lot of blogs I like, followed a bunch of people, sent questions to the inboxes of some of those who'd reblogged it, and got 5 followers in return. I think most people don't pay much attention to the OP, and I also think I might not have gotten any followers if I hadn't made such an effort to interact with others. 
So don't blaze a post just to get followers. 
For me, I genuinely like reading about other people's writing processes, and I'm still new to writeblr and am very happy to follow other writers, so that was fun for me. But if you're just trying to shine a one-way spotlight on your own blog, the blaze feature isn't going to do that for you.
So what's the use of blaze?
If you have cash you wanna throw into the interwebs and you think your post is both general and interactive enough to be of interest to a broad audience, then it might be a fun way to find accounts you wouldn't have come across otherwise.
It's also fun for shits and giggles, obviously.
I don't recommend it for advertising.
The bad points
Your post will be shown to potentially anyone. Besides troll interactions, my post also got reblogged by spheres of tumblr I'd never encountered before. Like, lots of TERFs. I'm a sensitive ladybug, and some people straight up post the most violent descriptions and hateful content, like, please please please touch so much grass. I could have gone without reading through some of those profiles tbh. But still fun for the writeblr accounts I did follow.
I changed my username during the campaign because I realized I don't need trolls and terfs to know my author name. Remember stranger danger, etc, etc, and be smart about the info you share in your bio/pinned post/username during a blaze campaign.
Blaze Report
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You get a report showing how well your post did, but the numbers don't seem accurate (compare the 246 notes to the 81 notes the report accounts for). Before that, you can also see the impressions the post has had thus far during the blaze campaign. As you can see in the first screenshot, my in-progress update told me my blaze started in 1970 (what a long, strange trip it's been). In other words: Tumblr's gonna tumblr.
In summary
To blaze or not blaze? Probably not, but yes I guess if you want people to interact with your ask game. Turn off anon asks!!!
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captainsspnanon · 1 year
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C2E65 - Chases and Trees - rewatch
Columbo or Critical Role….Columbo or Critical Role…. I think Critical Role, tonight!
We got some more good travel coming our way, and then we head into one of the few dungeon crawls of the campaign.  The crawls can be hit or miss with me, but I remember really enjoying this one a LOT, so I’m hoping it holds up on the second watch!
I forgot the nonsense that this DnD Beyond campaign turned into XD How many more bits of this do we have?  I know we’ve at least got the reversal reveal that it was actually Sam, the master debater bit, and then the closing statements bit where Liam goes full movie-i-can’t-remember-the-name-of.  Do we have more than those four?  (not counting the results at the live show, and then the reveal of the actual ‘presidency’)
Aww, Ashley being “I’ll take first watch” and going like anybody? Anybody?  Ready to RP please but I need someone to RP with!
Jester says maybe Yasha was a rock star during her memory loss!!  How much longer til the bone harp?  I feel like that’s AAAAGES away, but oh what a payoff to a throwaway bit!  WAIT JESTER EVEN SUGGESTS THAT SHE PLAYED A HARP
Ugh, the details of the Fields are so visceral and beautiful, it feels so ALIVE and REAL.  The creature scratching it’s back on one of the barbs, the dried out shell of the tortoise providing shelter and for them to explore, JUST SO GOOD.  I am trying to be a bit analytical of why this feels more alive to me than stuff from C3 – even though C3 gets plenty of detail, and I’m honestly not sure?  I know that Matt had collaborators in designing the continent for C3, maybe he feels more set by what was created by other and not as free to improv, whereas C2 he was basically the sole creator and thus could improv whatever he wanted?  Because let’s be real, we’ve gotten plenty of lovely descriptions of stuff in C3, but I tend to find details slipping from my mind.  Eh, it’s probably like Zadash. Zadash had a ton of stuff described at the beginning, but by the end of the campaign, Zadash was just the Gentleman’s and Pumat’s and that was it.  (realistically, it’s probably also because I started with C2 so that will likely always be my favorite and my ‘best’, the same way that people who started with C1 tend to talk about how C2 wasn’t anywhere near as good, and people who are starting with C3 are talking about how C2 is so hard to get into XD.  90% + of the time, your first will be your favorite, IMO.)
(brain going brrrrrr….time to switch to columbo)
(it’s like two weeks later now.  I can watch the first episode of season 4 of Columbo, or head into CR.  Think I’m feeling CR today!)
(wait I’m less than 45 minutes into the episode, what.   I thought I got further than this.  Shame on me!)
It’s within the past few episodes that Jester has really started to notice and become disappointed with Nott’s frequent drinking.  I believe it started when Nott felt she had to be drunk to confront Yeza, and has only steadily worsened from there.  I like how Laura has taken this and progressed it very slowly, to reach a boiling point on this trip with her taking the flask.  (I also appreciate that Laura mentions later in Talks that this is a very bad way to actually deal with alcoholism in real life, but this is a dnd game so bad decisions ahoy!)
I’m a bit sad I spoiled this fight for myself.  I didn’t use the critrolestats heavily when I was first watching C2, so this time around I’ve been going through all the monster analysis and such. Which means that I will click forwards until I get to the next blog post relevant for the episode, skipping the media references/jokes as that’s not my particular interest.  As such, I saw the post for the gloomstalker fight and literally went “don’t they just find the tree and the roc?  What gloomstalkers?”.  And now, here they are! Kicking myself just a bit as I genuinely would have been surprised when this occurred, especially as there is the tension of ‘you see a shape’, ‘you can tell the shape is the big creature, but lying down’, ‘the creature appears to be dead’, ‘there are dark blobs that are on the creature OH THEY’RE MOVING’ like – I would have completely fell for the tension!  As I’m sure I did the first time I watched.
Fucking SAM.  This giant goofball throwing out tactical plays when you least expect it!  Oddly, the moment of having the illusory moorbounder and rider falling behind the group?  It feels much more like Sam doing it than Nott doing it, to me.  Perhaps this is a reason that I’ve struggled with Nott a bit.  Don’t get me wrong, I love her, but she’s sort of the last on my list (excluding the Tealeafs), and I couldn’t figure out why.  With this, I think I’ve got it now.  When Nott does something clever such as this, I’ve been attributing it to Sam, rather than the PC.  Travis does something clever?  That was Fjord.  Marisha putting pieces together? It’s Beau.  Liam making big moves?  Caleb has nerves of steel when he needs it!  Sam making an awesome play?  Good job, Sam.  *shakes head at myself*  THAT has been some damn stupid bias on my part, and I’m not even sure why I’ve done that!  I need to readjust my thinking.  NOTT is the one who made the illusion of the moorbounder. NOTT is the one who had the illusion fall behind, to distract the gloomstalkers.  Not Sam, NOTT.
….I’m SO disappointed in myself that just that realization is having me go ‘oh wow, Nott is so much smarter than I gave her credit for!’ WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.  
Okay, in at least some fairness to myself, this is actually a consistent struggle that I have with all of Sam’s PCs.  Sam in some ways has the Dimension 20 style of play – improv comedian going for the joke no matter what.   And while I am fully enjoying Dimension 20, I do not in any way get as invested in the PCs as I do with CR, and it’s because the players are always Visible.  At CR, there are a lot of times where you actually forget you’re watching the players because the PCs take the forefront and it’s just like watching them as if they were in full costume and makeup – so to speak.  In D20, the players are at the forefront with all the jokes and references (as well as their style of play and interactions with the DM and other players).  (also let me be clear, this is not WRONG. It’s just different, I thoroughly enjoy both CR and D20!)  Sam is frequently the member at the CR table where it feels like Sam is forefront, and his PC is less visible.  I have this issue with Scanlan, with Tary, with Fresh Cut Grass, as well as with Nott.  And it does mean that I give at least some of the PCs less credit than they deserve (Tary and Nott for the most part.  Mainly because Scanlan IS a joke deliberately for the first chunk of C1.)  I doubt this realization will change things overall for me, but hopefully now I can be aware of it more!
(last bit on this topic – but this also techincally plays along with the stats, with Nott currently having the second highest INT at the table until Beau gets her headband.  Nott IS the second smartest, she just displays it in different ways than Beau and Caleb, and she’s also heavily self-deprecating and robs herself of a lot of her own talents)
I really enjoyed the first part of the combat being non-standard (I canNOT think of the word I want to use right now) with no rolling of initiative, but still respecting the essential balance of turns.  Of course, there is something delightful with all three moorbounders failing their con saves, and then moving this into a more classical combat encounter.
This seems to be around the time where Matt has started using HDYWTDT more regularly, which I’m mixed feelings on.  With the last battle and this, there were multiple assailants, and each one got the HDYWTDT.  While I appreciate having the more detailed descriptions from the players knowing it’s the death blow, there still is something very exciting having the last (or the most important) opponent be the sole HDYWTDT in a combat.  Even though the question serves the same purpose regardless of who it’s for (provide flavor for the finishing move), there’s the level of ‘yay killed the guy’ and ‘HOLY CRAP WE DID IT OMG WE WON’.  That’s the downside of it become a catchprase of kinds, I guess.  Instead of just being a utility statement, it becomes a Thing, and then when it’s used for it’s utility purposes, the Thing feels like it’s being cheapened.
Lol I like that it’s been so long, Liam/Caleb forgot he could cast dancing lights under a rag.
OH GOD THIS IS THE SILLY STRING!!!!  in honor of liam and laura’s birthday – yup, that makes sense.  Fricken chaos twins
I do like how they immediately call Travis out for being the first to fire, but we all know it’s Liam.  Liam is pure chaos, but in just a different way that people tend not to think of him as chaos.
I feel like I eventually need to watch a supercut of all Essek moments, just because every time I hear Matt speak as Essek I always think it sounds wrong, which means that I don’t know what I even think Essek actually sounds like!  Either way, I still wonder why Essek says that they’re doing him proud by making it to the Arbor Exemplar.  It doesn’t seem to feel right, either with Essek deep in deception mode, or Essek slowly warming up to them.  Perhaps just related to the fact that Essek told the Bright Queen that he trusts their capabilities, and the fact that they’ve made it there is proving him right.
Caleb asking Nott if she wants to sleep with vulture!Frumpkin tonight, my HEART.  It really is quite obvious how Caleb shows affection through Frumpkin, and then every moment is just seeing it more clearly.
The beauty of the Wildmother reaching Fjord and saving him from the Uk’otoa dream is two-fold.  Thee-fold.  The first is just the imagery and knowledge that the Wildmother is reaching out to help Fjord, that she is giving him the opportunity to be better than he is and not feel the need to remain with Uk’otoa just for the powers he provides (or at least, the start of Fjord’s journey with this). The second is the rest of the cast reacting as Matt narrates.  And the last is the beauty that you can only see with a rewatch after you’ve watched the Talks, where Travis says he though Matt was referring to Fjord’s mother rather than the Wildmother.  Travis/Fjord’s face in this scene – the widening of his eyes, the slight hint of a smile – with that knowledge, adds a level  of tenderness, longing, wistfulness…..just a soft subtle moment from a misunderstanding that genuinely leads to a much more beautiful moment.
Considering I had much more of a remembrance of a blow up in regards to Tori, I think I completely missed the aspect of this story going over Beau’s self-deprecation and lack of confidence.  She really was so put down when she was with her family.  She gets bailed out of jail, and because of that she thinks that Tori hates her forever, to the point where she’s reluctant/scared to try to find her again because she expects Tori to punch her in the face?  For something that wasn’t in her control?  Either Marisha discusses what she thinks would happen later on down the line, or my brain just added more into it – feelings about being a ‘rich kid’ able to be bailed out, the fact that Tori wasn’t bailed out as well, etc. etc. But in the end, in the truth, there’s a lot more assumptions of feelings by Beau than her taking the time to find out the true feelings that Tori may have had, which parallels quite nicely with Beau’s overall arc and character growth by the end of the campaign.
“I’ve seen you.  I’ve seen you a lot.”  OOOF.  I thought this was from WAY later in the campaign, by around the time they were almost dating!  This early??  And also, right before Obann takes her away???????  That is a sucker-punch to the GUT.  And for Beau to hear that, and then less than a week later have Yasha ‘betray’ the group??  No wonder she got so defensive so quickly.  UGH THESE TWO.
(for the record, Beau’s also in her Jester crush stage at the moment, and has been for a bit though I’m not sure where to pinpoint the start of it, but while it’s a fun pairing, it was never one that I really shipped.  Mostly because Jester really has been so singularly focused on her interest in Fjord, but also because the Beau and Jester dynamic to me has always felt more of a fast bonding friendship – with the roommates and silly conversations and deep conversations and opening up your heart.  If it had become the canon ship I wouldn’t have felt that it came out of nowhere, but I feel like it would have required a solid chunk of roleplay from Laura to smoothly transition from Fjord feels to Beau feels.  With Beau and Yasha, yeah it’s awkward and stilted and uncomfortable at times, but it feels like there’s been mutual interest from the start, even if the interest was more shallow or superficial.  Ashley did confirm in the wrap up that Yasha did go to brothels, so it’s not like she didn’t let herself have any interest outside Zuala, just that I think she shied away from any romantic interest for the longest time.)
Out of the 69 total recorded rolls for Frumpkin for perception on critrolestats, he averages either a 12.8 or a 13 depending on if I made a mistake in my calculation or not (there’s either 68 or 69 perception rolls and I can’t be assed to go through a second time). There are a lot of high rolls in there, but also a lot of low rolls. Still, it’s above average!  I’m team Give Frumpkin Credit.  XD
Beau running up this tree is so fucking badass I can’t even.  I was shocked the first time I went into dnd forums and saw people shitting on monks and saying monks were bad because my experience of monks was BEAU BEING FUCKING AWESOME.
Honestly?  This climbing section would be a great introductory scene for someone for either considering getting into critical role, or wondering what dnd can be like.  You’ve got 1) showing off the skills of a class via Beau not needing to roll to run up the tree, 2) showing off the mechanics of the game by having Fjord and Jester roll, 3) showing off how failing the game can work by Jester falling on a nat 1, versus just clinging to the tree and not increasing on a 9, 4) showing off how you can play with a failure by Fjord using thunder step and Nott and Caleb using feather fall to save Jester from the nat 1, 5) showing off how roleplay is involved with Jester coming up with in game reasons for not being able to progress (her hands are sweaty because she fell, she’s nervous!), 6) showing off how the DM is in control but still will play by the rules, but can also change adjustments on the fly, and then 7) showing off how even if you’re not involved in the scene you can still have fun with Caleb making the decision afterwards to polymorph, and Caduceus reacting to each thunder step damaging the tree.
Liam’s eagle cry is reminding me of a flut-flut from jak and daxter.  ...*goes to check voice credits*  nope not him okay never mind
OMG when Beau jumps from the tree Marisha does the EXACT SAME ARM MOVEMENTS as the Keyleth cliffjump!!
I totally forgot that the actual roc was there because I only remember the bit about the roc baby, but now I’m vaguely remembering.  Don’t they polymorph it and it keeps attacking Jester?  Like as a baby bird or baby bat or something?
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selccuth · 2 years
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KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER.
REPOST DO NOT REBLOG !!
NAME: Bunny! 🐇
PRONOUNS: she/her/they
PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Discord and Twitter. I would say here, but I come here to check when I have no replies once every century apparently, so if you’re looking to reach me and me actually notice before hell freezes over, I quick glance check both every day at the very least.
NAME OF MUSE(S): Bellamy, Ideo, Lulubelle, Pica, and Whitebeard! And, if you know me and my history or just click around my carrd a little bit, you can find my secret little menu for some request-only muses!
RP EXPERIENCE/HOW LONG (MONTHS / YEARS?): I’ve been on Tumblr basically since it became a thing, give or take a year or two, moving over from deviantART’s comments and blog posts. This was back during the old layout, when you typed in a little box and all your options were just above it instead of highlighting to bold/italics and such. You know, when ask blogs were way more popular than RP blogs. So I’ve been writing personally for at LEAST 15 years, and on tumblr maybe about 12 to be generous.
BEST EXPERIENCE: Difficult to say, since I’ve had so many wonderful experiences with so many people. Everyone I’ve met here over the years has been so talented and inspiring, it’s hard for me to pick just one experience that stands out above the others. Not because nothing catches my eye, but because EVERYTHING catches my eye. It’s like looking up at the stars - you never really focus on one, you want to scan the entire sky and admire all of them.
RP PET PEEVES/DEALBREAKERS: Super excessive negativity ( like to an incredibly concerning and constant degree, it’s okay to be down and out sometimes, I just have a bad history ), the usual peeves of the general RP community ( aesthetics over writing, godmodding, you know ), blatant hate of any kind, not respecting or even reading my blog rules and vice versa ( trust me, people can easily tell ). Tbh there isn’t much that bugs me to such a degree that it’s an immediate deal breaker on everything, but patience has a limit, even in the most patient of people.
FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT: All three! Like many I write fluff and angst most often with smut taking the back seat since I’m not in many situations where I can comfortably write it ( save to and for myself since that’s guaranteed okay ). That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it when I can, however! I could basically live my entire life on fluff, though, and any kind of cheesy, cliché, silly softness or romance or whatever have you absolutely destroys me every single time. I love it.
PLOTS OR MEMES: Both! Usually when it comes to threads, I’m often winging it and going with whatever happens from even the most simplistic of starts, either a few sentences or a meme. I find that the interaction, being unpredictable and uncertain, makes it feel more like reality not knowing what will come and develop, and it really brings situations to life. I know not everyone is into that, however, and enjoy having a goal to work towards. That being said, I love to plot as well! I’ll talk your ear off about potential roads and relationships. I’ll talk into the night, into the morning, into eternity. Think I won’t - you’d be wrong. I’ll happily plot out entire histories and bonds to gear our threads towards without a second thought.
LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: Long replies all the way. It does take longer for me compared to short ones, but I love the detail, the intricacy, the fruition of an interaction to the point it makes it feel real. Short replies are always great, though, especially since they allow me to be more active more consistently than spending hours on the same reply. All interaction is good interaction.
BEST TIME TO WRITE: Really depends on my current schedule. Since I don’t really adhere to any unless I have things planned in the coming days, sometimes I’m awake super late at night and into the morning and other days I’m an early bird. Usually, though, I do most of my writing during the former, when most people are asleep, and I’m the little gremlin that’s still awake cause I have inspiration at 4AM. When I’m a normal human being, I also tend to write in the morning or during the afternoon, since I usually conk out on those days super early.
ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): Debatable. I at least consider myself to be kind, which applies to 4/5 of my muses, and all of them in special situations. I think most people see me as a very peculiar blend of Lulu and Pica, former more prominent. When it comes to public face, I’m very quiet and shy and I don’t talk very much at all. Normally I don’t care to deal with people, or even be vocal at all, especially as the way I sound on top of many other things, has been the butt of many a joke. With friends and online though, you can’t get me to shut up, and I love you. I’ve opened up a lot as I’ve gotten older and, hopefully, matured a bit, but I’m sure you can still see a bit of both.
tagged: yoink​
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whumpisfun · 6 months
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Hey hi so i was going through my reblog and saw this ask game, and decided that I want to ask myself a couple of these questions!
💗 - What inspired you to start a whump blog?
I’ve always been into whump content ever since I was a little kid, even though I don’t know there’s a name for that. I would spend hours searching for some of the key words I’m interested in on the internet, and eat up whatever scraps of whump scenes in those shitty web novels that pop up. My first ever whump writing was a self-insert fanfiction for a Minecraft roleplay series, where there’s like betrayal and torture scenes caused by miscommunication. My imagination was pretty limited though, and there’s simply not much content that feels like it could scratch the itch. English isn’t my first language, and at that time I didn’t have access to any English-based content.
Years later I decided I was decent at English and finally figure out how to access English content. At first I was trying to read a famous fanfiction on ao3, and failing, because there are some pretty advanced vocabulary in it, but regardless it was the first time I read English stuff not for studying for exams but just for funsies, and I found it quite enjoyable. I started reading other fics in that fandom and found myself regularly adding tags like “blood and injuries” in the filter.
So naturally I noticed the word whump and started wondering what that was about (it was pretty rough, at first I assume fluff and angst means the same thing, and whump stands for what fluff actually is supposed to be). For some reason I clicked into a post on Reddit and it told people to go to tumblr if they want to find whump content. The first whump series I encountered didn’t exactly caused any whumperflies, but the violence was very well written, so I decided to make a tumblr account and explored for a bit. Then there it is, the realization that I can finally put a word to what I have always wanted. I am not sick or alone in any way, the things I enjoyed are not pointless, what I want to write about can be creative and beautiful and valued by others.
And now I have this whump blog where I can reblog things and maybe try and post a bit of writing. I can’t really post any writings in my first language, since there isn’t really a community for whump and there’s no desirable platform that will allow for this sort of content. I don’t quite know how to write in English though, which put me in a bit of a dilemma. But I figure I’d have to practice, so now I’m trying to occasionally post whump writings, without properly tagging it so that I won’t feel too anxious!
So, in brief, I’m kinda inspired by a lot of things(?) Anyways, it’s just so very nice to have this blog and I feel so lucky to be here! :D
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monstermaster13 · 1 year
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Terri-Abil’s Been Stamped Out.
NOTE: This fic is written to be a flat out revenge-fic but done as a parody of one, so it lampoons the genre of a revenge-fic in a manner that is a call-back to the very early episodes of Tales From The Web.
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There are some blogs that make you wonder why they exist, and anti-deviantart blogs are one of them, Thomas ‘Terri’ Abil had one of these he called it the ‘The Sucky Stamp Show’ and he talked about stamps he found to be repulsive or terrible hence his persona’s name, he was a no good asshole who mocked people who made stamps and he had a slightly humanoid rat-like appearance, he was a bigger rat than you could ever imagine with his anons always submitting terrible stamps for him to mock, but one night he went too far when he decided to target Nathan aka Monstermaster13 by mocking his Dan Aykroyd kin stamp. ‘Don’t you think this is a bit extreme and a bit much, I mean what did he do to you?’ ‘Nothing, I just think his stamp sucks..’, just as he was about to click on the submit button he got a message from Nathan himself, Nathan looked extremely pissed.
“Well well well, looks like i’ve caught myself a rat.”
“I wasn’t doing what you’re thinking I am doing.”
‘Oh you weren’t, huh? Well explain these…you were planning on submitting my Dan Aykroyd kin stamp to that weren’t ya?’ ‘I was…’ ‘I know you think it’s terrible and just sucky enough to be on your show, but I think you’re a terrible person for doing so, think about what you’re doing for once in your life, is this really how you want to be?’ ‘Well yes.’ ‘Your show is below average at best and it’s no wonder the edgelord wannabes like it so much.’ ‘Excuse me?’ ‘You heard me, edgelord wannabes and people who simp over characters from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Arcane to the point of doing transformation fics about people turning into them but being as absolutely vague as possible when describing the main character prior to transforming but pulls out all the stops for the transformation scenes. And you, you’re in the middle.’ ‘But why do you identify as Dan Aykroyd?’ ‘I’m a Were-Aykroyd and no this isn’t some kind of ruse like when I pretended to be John Candy.’ ‘You mean the were-aykroyd stuff is real?’ ‘Oh yes, and if you’re not careful, you might find out for yourself.’ ‘What do you mean?’
Before he could even ask why, the environment around him began to change…warping and contorting into what was an 1980’s horror themed music video come to life, he still had his phone and his computer and they hadn’t changed but he noticed that he was in the middle of a hallway while a group of masked dancers swirled around him. “How are you doing this? Is this a movie you’re making, is this smoke and special effects stuff.’ ‘Special effects? Oh no, this is magic.’ ‘Can you do that?’ ‘Oh yes I certainly can, and being a Were-Aykroyd gives me some useful abilities, it is however difficult to explain to people what I do and what I am, because nobody has seen what a real were-aykroyd is like.’
“Well if this is about that stamp of yours, i’m sorry.”
“Sorry, dear boy isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
‘But i’m apologizing, aren't I, come on..please.’ ‘I'm sorry but that is terrible.’ “What do you want from me?’ ‘If you don’t take that entry about my stamp down i’ll take away something of yours..’, he dreaded to think what he indeed meant by that and as he did, several of his friends disappeared into the shadows and vanished completely along with all personal data on his phone and computer. ‘My friends, my data..’ ‘Oh don’t worry, there’s new data on the way and you don’t need those followers.’
“What do you mean I don’t need those?”
‘I’ve been waiting to actually do a revenge style payback on people like you for years and this is the closest I am going to get.’ ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to undo the damage I may have caused on you and the others.’ Several ghostly figures emerged from the walls and grabbed. ‘Thomas, why? I thought you liked us yet you vilify us?’ ‘I didn’t mean to, it’s just for fun.’ ‘There’s nothing fun about being vilified for making stamps, we consider that to be our fun, we are the ghosts of the people that made those stamps, you have doomed us all.’ ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘Sorry, my boy…isn’t good enough.’ Nathan took every opportunity to mock and belittle Thomas, pointing out his every single little flaw. ‘Hey, I can change.’
“Not yet you can’t but I can help with that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
‘Because I would never have it in me to do a thinly veiled revenge fantasy come to life in this way, I am offering you something. I’ll turn you into a were-aykroyd and you can redeem yourself…’ ‘How?’ ‘I’ll show you…turn around, bright eyes.’ Nathan ran his hands through Thomas’s hair and as he did, a warm sensation began to take over his body. Thomas examined himself for a bit, watching as black ooze dripped out of his mouth, representing his negative personality aspects. If you’re one of those annoying whiny types that is likely to accuse someone of being a coward for using an oc or story to vent out problems or whatever then you are wasting your time bitching about something that isn’t real so please stick to what you do like instead of bitching about something you don’t read or even watch in the first place.
Brown hairs slowly developed on his arms which broadened and his skin cleared up and matured, his hands enlarged in the process. His chest and torso broadened as brown hairs developed on the former and his stomach enlarged, the hairs going down there as well, he couldn’t help but suddenly simp over himself…he was never one to think about his appearance but now he couldn’t help but think he was becoming handsome, as back broadened and his legs altered and his rear plumped up, his feet enlarging as two of the toes on each foot joined at the knuckle and gave him the appearance of having webbed toes as he slowly shot up in height to 6’1 as his shoulders broadened as did his back. His neckline altered as his hair darkened while his forehead contorted, elevating in height and growing as his brow altered in the process, his eyebrows thickened as his eyes widened.
One of his eyes turned from brown to green while the other remained brown, his nose broadened as a cleft materialized down the middle, his lips became kissable as his features shifted to become Aykroydian. He examined himself as his voice deepened and contorted to match,becoming the voice of Dan Aykroyd himself, that’s when he realized that this silly business of mocking people for being creative with stamps was just that. ‘You know I never understood why I had to do this. I’m a Were-Aykroyd, not an a-logger. Those guys aren’t like us Were-Aykroyds.’
“Naturally, you’re better than them.”
“Indeed. Being part of the group is better.”
‘Good…now let’s get rid of all of this.’ All of the stamps that had previously been featured faded away off the board including the Aykroyd stamp, the Aykroyd stamp’s aura affected the blog, making it into an Aykroyd centric blog with a shrine to were-aykroyd lore. Eventually over time this grew larger and larger, gathering a following of its own. ‘There we go..isn’t it all better?’ ‘Yes, no need for those dumb stamps.’ ‘Yeah those stamps were dumb, i’m so sorry.’ ‘That’s alright, now there’s only one matter left to attend to. Hiis mind and personality altered, making him remember he was a Were-aykroyd and part of Dan’s group of siblings and he remembered that he was going to be taught how to track down targets.
“Hey, brother…who is my first target going to be?”
“I know who.”
It was time that he was going to encounter his first target, Dan showed him an image of his first target…his first target was a d-list a-logger named Francis Demure who was part of a website called ‘Daloli-verse Dimwits’, which detailed every single bit of the history of the Daloli-verse prior to the Aykroyds taking over, including a crap-ton of defamatory information about Dan’s ‘friend’ Nathan. ‘Take a look at this guy, he thinks that mentioning Drmusic2 over and over is going to summon my friend. He is truly pathetic.’ The site was called the Daloli-verse Dimwit Chronicles because you would have to be a hate-demon or an idiot to actually like the content on said site. ‘Let’s pay him a visit.’
They used some supernatural magic to manifest in the virtual online-verse version of the site and that’s where they saw Francis, basically if every internet troll wannabe had fused together in a disgusting pile of hatred, this is what you’d get…he was ratty looking and disheveled, part of him looked like that typical emo wannabe whose dream job was working at Hot Topic. ‘Drmusic2, Drmusic, Drmusic2.’ Francis chanted in front of a mirror, the mirror began to glow as if by supernatural magic and Dan the Were-Aykroyd and his newest addition emerged from it, Dan had a huge smile on his face.
“Attention k-mart shoppers. There’s a sale on morons, only 30% off.”
“Hey, i’m no moron.”
“Oh yes you are, Francis.”
‘How do you know my name?’ ‘I know and see all and I read what you said.’ ‘Oh shit.’ ‘Yes…for shame, mocking Nathan for being different and calling him werejohncandy.’ ‘I honestly forgot about his werejohncandy/weregrinch/were-stallone/wereleno/were-alter-ego bullshit.’ ‘Well you did a piss poor job of that then, mister. Either apologize or i’m going to make you do it.’ ‘Oh alright, i’m sorry.’ ‘By the way, nice freaking website.’
“Now what shall we do about you?”
“I don’t know…please don’t hurt me.”
Dan chuckled…’Relax, and listen to me…I will not hurt you’, Thomas leaned over and began to use one of his Were-Aykroyd powers to bring Francis over…’Yeah, brother Dan is our friend and he is ready to see me use my powers on my first target and guess what, it’s you.’ Francis panicked as he attempted to run, but Dan and Thomas stalked him throughout, using their powers to turn his allies against him and turning them into Were-Aykroyds too and by the time it had gotten to the others, he had no place to run and no place to hide. The panicking Francis begged to be let go but Dan looked over and smirked…before looking at Thomas…’Since he’s your first target, why don’t you do the honors of turning him?’ ‘Sure…this will be fun.’ ‘You don’t have to do this you know, we can still be friends, come on, what do you say?’ Thomas smirked as he brought him closer and then jumped up on him and squeezed him.
“I say…not so fast round boy, we’re going to have some laughs.”
Thomas hugged and kissed Francis, in turn draining the negative energy and negative attributes out of his body, all of his memories of doing ‘Daloliverse Dimwits’ faded and he could only think about the Were-Aykroyd who turned Thomas and the idea of becoming like him as he fell into trance-like state and slowly turned into a Were-Aykroyd himself, and thus with that Thomas had successfully converted his first target. And thus with that, Dan and his two new additions headed off, Dan couldn’t wait to introduce them to his siblings and get them ready for another night of fun.
As for what happened later, well..more Were-Aykroyds were added to the roster and more was to come. And thus comes the moral of the episode, remember, when you post someone else’s stamps online, remember not to do it for malicious purposes or there might or will be consequences, also never make fun of someone with supernatural powers or you might find that you might find they’ll catch up to you.
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📓📕📘📙 Prologue 📓📔📗📘
I am reposting these first eighty-two chapters (in 22 sections) plus the prologue and the preface.
These posts will be the updated versions from my DeviantArt account, and since Tumblr may not display all the text correctly (it destroys anything I had in italics or underlined) I would still recommend reading everything there, on DeviantArt. They will also include internal links that navigate between the chapters on DeviantArt and will take the reader off Tumblr if clicked.
This came about because I noticed search engines were finding random sections of my book and displaying them along with some other people’s blog posts.
Okay, so that’s why I installed those internal links in each one… so that if anyone gets to a random section by way of a search engine and would like to read the story from the beginning, they can.
Only then did I realize that it wasn’t getting it’s search results from DeviantArt, but from old Tumblr.
There’s another problem at work here besides unrefined searches…
There is a new species of virus on the internet that likes to eat ancient Tumblr posts and barf them back up infested with adware - spyware - malware etc. The virus goes by names like TumGIR, TumBIG, TumPIK, or Tum(anything else but ‘blr’). The caps were added by me for emphasis so that maybe you can double check in case you’re not looking at an actual Tumblr post right now but one of these so-called “mirror” sites.
If you’re looking at this text through one of the counterfeit Tumblrs that I mentioned, then no link you click (assuming it even copies it with my links intact) will take you out; it will redirect you and show you all of the spam ads it wants to. So read carefully what url is showing on your browser right now.
If it is one of the untrustworthy ones I would suggest closing your browser window and doing whatever else you normally would in order to reset settings.
As far as my science fiction novel entitled “If And Only If,” the safest way to find it is by going to my Instagram:
@michelle.de.vandahlcourte
From there you can click on the link in my bio. It will take you to the beginning of the story on DeviantArt… the safe one! No malware.
P.S. None of this is Tumblr’s fault! It’s the malware/adware/spyware developers who are stealing people’s tumblr posts.
The actual content of this page appears below here👇
📓📕📘📙 Prologue 📓📔📗📘
↩️return to previous section (the preface)
Never trust a time traveler who doesn’t wear a watch.
“I found this in the patient’s room, Ms. Ranganathan,” her eager young personal assistant said. “At first I thought it was from a fortune cookie, but it’s in ink, done by someone who can print very neatly.”
“Thank you so much Petra. You did what our ‘sweep team’ failed to do properly.” She took the tiny strip of paper, knowing exactly who the aphorism’s author was referring to, and silently disagreed. Just a few days ago and thirty-thousand years in the future, she’d had the pleasure of hearing him perform his signature song live – while not wearing a watch. His trustworthiness wasn’t a problem. The person who wrote this “fortune” however, was a narcissistic sociopath who was going to get three helicopter-loads of people killed in about a dozen years.
She continued staring into the thing her European employees called a tablet. That was good, she thought, that it blended in with their technology and didn’t look too futuristic. The young woman whom she could just see in the corner of her eye, was in fact chronologically a year older than she. It was also good to see she’d put on neoprene gloves first before picking up some random scrap from a patient’s restroom floor, even though she knew this patient hadn’t been physically ill at all. She glanced at her own watch, one of only two on the entire planet that was currently working, and thought: twenty minutes... that should be more than enough.
Her assistant needed to be less formal, especially in public. Not for social or interpersonal reasons but because it looked attention-drawing weird for Petra to be speaking that way to someone of her apparent age. It had taken about a week to get her to “duzen” as the Germans call it. That part didn’t matter in English, and since this patient had escaped from an American hospital... It wasn’t a big deal at the moment. Furthermore, with time frozen, no one could see or hear them; they could speak however they wanted.
So she held off on another don’t-be-so-formal-in-public talk. The young German had never seen Marcy and Peppermint Patty from Peanuts either, so that analogy hadn’t helped. “Hey, since your tablet should be charged enough by now, go ahead and read me some more of your redacted report for the human workers, please.”
“Yes ma’am!” She whipped the thing out like a spaghetti-western gunslinger and got the page right open:
“A prior group of humans at some unspecified time have found the object. It is not exactly a sphere, but as Alex later described it, The Thing oscillates between a prolate spheroid and an oblate spheroid form. After the original humans found it, it accelerates into space to make its escape.”
She paused to clean a smudge off her screen and casually see if her suddenly-very-quiet boss was still even in the room. She was. Just evidently scanning a corner with a gadget that looked like an old-fashioned label maker.
“It lands on Venus and burrows under the surface slightly – at a place called Lakshmi Planum. This is supposed to be the automated spheroid’s way of returning to its alien caretakers or owners. It’s basically a tool for aliens on a camping trip. Alex later describes them as 12-dimensional beings. We aren’t sure if he’s joking or not. He’s a mathematician.”
She stopped to see why her boss had laughed. “It’s okay Petra, you quoted me exactly. But we’ll edit that part from the final version. Please continue.”
In truth she had known that mathematician since they were kids at school together over a hundred-twenty years in the future. That would be too much info for her assistant from this era of Earth’s past to handle right now. So she got her to keep reading the dumbed-down version while they could still take advantage of time being frozen and the nano robots were still erasing all evidence of the patient’s DNA; enough that the simple CSI types from this time would never be able to find anything.
Back to The Spheroid’s strategy:
Sort of like “if we get separated, meet back here.”
The Spheroid has rudimentary AI capabilities and the ability to monitor or access information networks. It concludes that Venus is a safe place to wait, since humans in the eventual future where it was-will-be found by the miners, will apparently at least partially terraform Mars. But they will do nothing whatsoever with Venus. They decide that it’s just too complicated due to the atmosphere.
The thing knows this from reading the ship’s logs and library files on the human-crewed spacecraft that picked it up. It will simply wait for the appropriate amount of time until right after it was originally found by the mining expedition and gravitationally slingshotted around a naked singularity. Then it will return to its original spatial coordinates and reunite with its owners, etc.
The important details left out in the “et cetera” portion of this account would fill the woman’s device. But several of the higher-ups were adamant that this was all they were cleared for.
She continued:
It does not, however, have the ability to refuse service to anyone else who may find it along the way – Think of an unlocked phone. And someone did find it.
At the end of its last encounter with humans, the six metallurgical researchers on the asteroid outpost who agreed to forget about the alien artifact because they believed it was too much power for any human beings to be trusted with – not only themselves, but any humans at all – made a mistake.
In erasing their memories, one or more of them accidentally erased something they shouldn’t have… A seemingly unimportant memory that would have led its owner to action… That would’ve established space exploration policy, eventually leading to Mars terraforming endeavors in the following century.
Instead? Humans in this alternate future have decided to terraform Venus after all. A few years later they did still terraform Mars as well.
The woman paused briefly to get ahold of herself. She knew the basics: time travel is real, the boss is from the future, the people she works for are the “good guys,” and naturally technology in the future is going to be more advanced. But the numbers which were forthcoming as she read had truly terrifying implications. Had humans become more advanced in this future as well? Enough so that they could be trusted with this kind of… well, firepower?
“It takes about one megaton pushing on every twenty-five square kilometers of atmosphere.” She went on reading.
“So 32,768 one-thousand megaton thermonuclear devices – shaped nuclear charges – are detonated simultaneously and at uniform height over equidistant points above the atmosphere of Venus, causing the atmosphere to undergo implosion-ablation and be largely blasted off into space where it gets harmlessly dragged in by the Sun’s gravity and becomes a zeptoscopically small amount of additional nuclear fuel for our star.”
Future-Alex’s calculations in high school in another century would show it had to be more firepower than that, and that the future-government was probably lying, but again not relevant to humans of 2006.
Thus with the planetary atmosphere of Venus pretty much removed, the humans eagerly began their sub-Cytherean terraforming operations.
Impact on the spheroid’s plans:
Venus was a place where it thought it could wait quietly for a millennium or so, without being disturbed, until its original owners came for it. Now, with all the humans poking around, the thing found it necessary to relocate. First to the far western edge of Ishtar Terra, and then off-planet. As far as it knows, Mars is still being colonized. It chooses for its hiding place, a subterranean cavern beneath a giant sinkhole in an abandoned part of Kentucky...
That was about as far as her assistant’s report would need to go for now, but of course it triggered some of Praji’s memories of her “home time” that she’d recently been forced to leave. That part of the story would need to continue in her mind vlog, privately. Prajina noticed the files in her mindwire beckoning to her but couldn’t look of course; the world would only be frozen for another thirteen minutes now.
Continue on to next section…
If And Only If
Copyright 2015
by Michelle Viviénne de Vandahlcourte
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
First Edition. © December 16, 2015.
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layaltheblogger · 2 years
Text
Tell us about your CPW as a prefrosh.
(C)ommemorating a (P)erfect (W)eekend 
Before I had visited campus, MIT was a dream. It all became a reality during CPW.
Yes, that CPW, the crazy-packed, fun-filled, often-surprising, unbelievably wholesome weekend experience that convinced me that MIT was the right place for me. I met loads of people, went to loads of events, got loads of free stuff, and had loads of fun. Right there, that’s a snapshot of CPW in two sentences, but it’s still not enough, because there were over 700 events when I attended in April 2018, and as many upperclassmen have repeatedly stressed before, you CANNOT go to all of them (physically impossible to enjoy) and you CANNOT plan to go to everything that interests you (because you’ll be running everywhere which will get you nowhere which is no fun). Personally, I tried planning early on (it’s a really bad idea) and I had way too many interesting events to go to. Later on, I picked two or three main non-overlapping events I could not miss and worked around that (a much better idea). So here is a summary of my favorite parts of CPW:
Help from a Friend I Just Hadn’t Met Yet: when I first arrived, I actually had a little A LOT of trouble getting the door to my host’s room open. I think I sat there for twenty minutes freaking out and sweating in my jacket just trying to get the door unlocked. An upperclassman was studying nearby and noticed my struggle. She helped me go down to the front desk and when that didn’t work, enlisted her friend to help unlock the door. I’ve never been more relieved to hear a door lock click. Katie (what I remember to be her name) didn’t stop there. She invited me into her room, so I could have some company and brewed me a cup of tea (Tazo Refresh-Mint tea, highly recommend).
We talked about CPW, MIT, and I asked her some questions. If it all wasn’t nice enough, this is all happening at around 10PM, and she had a pset due in only a couple of hours. I didn’t want to be too overbearing, so I did head for another CPW event, but her kindness stuck with me. Katie made me feel so much better after what had been a stressful travel day and a disorienting experience in a new place. If anything, this experience was one of the most impactful ones of the entire weekend. I truly felt welcome in the MIT community.
The Dorm I Stayed In (and the people who made it home <3): during CPW I stayed in Simmons. To say I fell in love with it is an understatement. EVERYTHING ABOUT SIMMONS IS BEAUTIFUL. Sure, the walk is a bit far, but the architecture, the design, and the quirky feel all make it a wondrous place for me. My host, Jeba (coolest host ever btw) made me feel so at home and taken care of at just the right moments. She had the best advice both for CPW and for MIT in general. After a particularly long day and a midnight battle of Apples to Apples with Jeba and some other prefrosh, I jokingly told her that I needed a massage. I was fully unaware that she had the power to grant my request, and so I was shocked when she took me to the second-floor massage chair. Who knew that the dorms had massage chairs? Certainly not me!
Since we took the stairs up from the lobby for that endeavor, I did try making it back up to her room with the stairs, but I honestly couldn’t find them. The Simmons stairs are like a disjointed maze that I was too tired to decipher, so I gave up and let the elevator carry me home.
Meet the Bloggers (aka very meta right now): so, I had first seriously considered MIT after I got a fanzine in the mail which contained some of the Best of the Blogs. This led to several nights of excessively binge-reading the most recent blog posts (and then traversing through some older ones). Of course, when I found out there was an opportunity to meet the cool people who wrote these blogs, I absolutely HAD to go. When I arrived, prefrosh were already there and everyone looked like they were having a good time. I didn’t know what hit me, but I was getting a sudden bout of anxiety standing there: I felt really small. My introverted side was not having it. I didn’t know where to start, or how to start talking. After painfully walking around for a while, I decided I was going to leave. And I hated myself for it. I hated that I was going to leave without doing the one thing I had been waiting all day to do.
I hovered by one last table, in hopes that maybe I could regain some semblance of confidence. One of the bloggers, Taylor, waved me over and almost instantly, I was socially cured. Taylor was one of my favorite bloggers, and she might not have known it, but she really helped me open up that night. We talked for a long time. Prefrosh who were originally talking to her had moved around the room then left. New prefrosh joined the conversation, moved around, then left. Bloggers shifted around into smaller and smaller groups. By the time I was going to leave, Afeefah and Caroline had joined us, and more shockingly, I realized I was the last prefrosh in the room. Because of this feat, I was available to take the blogger group photo, which was literally one of the greatest things that happened that weekend. I was over the moon. Just being in the midst of all of the bloggers made me determined to apply to become one.
Chocolate City Open Mic: I had never attended an actual open mic before, but I did know a bit of what to expect, and I was definitely excited. I wasn’t planning on sharing anything before I walked in, but that soon changed. The energy in the room was enlightening, it was invigorating. I witnessed fast-paced rap battles, poems written from the heart, and amazing energy and support from everyone. I was greatly encouraged to present something, anything I wanted to. When I declared my intent to go up, I was met with unbounded happiness from one of the organizers, and I only became more excited after that.
I looked through my Evernote (a seriously awesome place to keep ideas and poems) and settled on a spoken word poem I had written for a competition in 2016, expressing my feelings towards the state of politics in America. I hadn’t read it since that year, and once I finally stepped in front of everyone, I had realized how true everything still was, how it was almost like I had written it the day before. As I spoke, I felt electric, the room humming with snaps and cheers. It was like for a moment I was connected to everyone around me, in agreement and in unison. It was an amazing feeling I would never forget.
The willingness of the people in that room to be so supportive and excited about each other’s thoughts, works, and art really made me feel at home, even if I was actually a thousand miles away from it. I later reflected, that’s exactly what made MIT so special: the community. A degree can be earned at any college, there are numerous prestigious schools that are leaders in academics and research, but none of them are MIT. CPW truly showed me that, because in the end, the people around you create the environment; the environment at MIT is diverse, quirky, positive, exciting, and so are the students. And I wouldn’t have picked anywhere else to spend my next four years.
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